Belief Enough for the Both of Us
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day four hundred and twenty-nine: Christmas starts at 12:01am on December 1st in the Sylvester house.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 20th cycle. Now cycle 21! (I realized I didn't fix this line throughout the whole of cycle 20! *smacks forehead*)_

_**Merry Christmas Eve!**  
(Check out last year's xmas eve story, "Oh Come All Ye Gleeks" (day 64) _

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**"Belief Enough For The Both Of Us"  
Sue & Brittany  
Sylvesters Series... Sneak Peek?  
(jumping ahead 'cause of xmas, but I'll go back and fill in the blanks ;)) **

The frenzy began December 1st in their house. The date had been set for years, the date when the 'C' word was allowed: Christmas. If it wasn't for that rule, Brittany would probably have started in November… or August. Somewhere in the wee hours where November turned into December, she would get woken from restful sleep to hear a distant noise. After the first few years, she'd just turn back into position and fall back to sleep. But that first time, she got up… She wasn't afraid of there being a burglar in the house, oh no… She was completely willing to take on whatever idiot had to go and enter her house, where her daughter…

Her daughter was tugging at a box of decorations, using all the strength in her six-year-old arms to get it out of the closet. Sue let out a sigh, calming, now that she knew her culprit was a tiny blonde Christmas enthusiast. She cleared her throat, and the blonde head appeared, smiling… no guilt, no surprise. It was December 1st; it was time for Christmas.

The first few years, Sue would have to help her with the tree, right away. But then Brittany had grown in height and strength, and so she would get it done, all on her own, and come morning a winter wonderland had landed in their home. It may not have looked that way to a lot of people – she didn't air it out – but she did like the holidays. She hadn't had the best of those, growing up, but once it had become up to her, she found her own ways of celebrating, just her… and her sister… and then her daughter…

She knew she still believed in the big jolly man. It might have seemed silly and almost irresponsible, but if they knew her at all, the way she did, then they might understand. And if she couldn't bring herself to tell her the truth, then it meant a lot. Outside their home, she may not have been the greatest advocate for holiday cheer, but inside… well, she did her best, for Brittany's sake.

Watching her be so excited, she remembered… being a little girl, and how she anticipated that big day. She didn't have that much to hang on to, thanks to her parents. But she did try, with her sister. It wasn't much, but it was something, and that had to be better than nothing.

Things had changed a lot, since those days, but experiencing her girl's happiness all through December, to some degree, it brought a bit of it back to her; she wouldn't get in the way of it… Schuester was a whole other matter though.

One thing had led to another, and in this case this appeared to involve a Santa suit and green face paint. She was good and focused on her scheme until… a familiar voice brought her back to reality. There was her daughter, in her infinite clueless innocence. Judging by her hair, she had to assume she'd been to visit Jean; the styling had all the markings of Nurse Felicia's handiwork.

So maybe she knew… part of what made her go all Grinch-happy, even if she hated thinking about it. Following events of the previous summer, this would be the first Christmas morning they wouldn't spend together. In fact, she had lost a lot of mornings… And without her, Christmas would not be half as special to Sue…

But now there she was, and for a brief instant she was afraid she would recognize her, or at least put two and two together that something wasn't right… But then she'd never been good at math.

She played it cool… tried to, anyway. She realized, with how she had created one massive Christmas massacre, it may seem bad, but she had to find something to tell her, to ease her mind. It came down to a faulty light that needed fixing… That should do fine for Brittany. So she told her to go home, which, for a few more hours still, meant their home.

Once she had carefully 'de-greenified' herself – making sure not to leave any trace of paint – she went on home, where she found her daughter, sitting there with her up-done hair. When she saw her mother, she gave an excited smile.

"Santa was at school today."

"Was he?" Sue played along.

"Yes," Brittany nodded. "He was so nice. There was something wrong with the tree, so he took it to get fixed. It's a good thing he was there, right?"

"Right. Yes, absolutely," she agreed. She hesitated, sitting… but she sighed, and she patted Brittany's knee. "Come on, I'll drive you."

"Will you come to dinner?" There was a pause. "Christmas dinner. I don't want you to be alone," she frowned. Sue gave her a look, touching her cheek.

"I won't be alone, I… I'll be with your Aunt Jean. She shouldn't be alone either, should she?" Sue pointed out.

"No," Brittany shook her head in agreement. "But I'll call you, okay? Before I go out to breakfast with Grandpa."

"Then I'll wait for the call," she promised, getting a smile. "Come on, time to get you to your dad's."

THE END

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**A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
****always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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